hagel. plus, thousands of angry people will be arriving at a port in mobile, alabama, today. it's day five of the disaster aboard the carnival triumph. we'll have the latest details from the worst vacation ever. first, breaking news from overseas. involves one of the most visible competitors in the 2012 olympics. early this morning, a model was found shot to death at the south african home of oscar pistorius. he is known as the blade runner. the name of the suspected shooter has not been revealed. but a 26-year-old man, a man the same age as pistorius has been taken into custody. nbc's reporter is live for us in london. a crazy story overnight. what is the latest? >> yeah, good morning, bill. south african police say they received a call early this morning after reports that there had been a shooting at the home of oscar pistorius. they found paramedics trying to revive a woman.

she died at the scene. it's believed that woman is oscar pistorius' girlfriend, the model. tributes have started coming in for her and her publicist described it as a huge loss. there is still lots of uncertainty about this. some speculation that pistorius shot his girlfriend after mistaking her for an intruder. perhaps she had been trying to surprise him for valentine's day. just yesterday she wrote on twitter what do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow? police say they found a nine millimeter pistol at pistorius' home. and pistorius in the past has spoken about keeping guns in his house. they have the highest rates of violent crime. many homeowners do keep weapons to defend themselves against intruders. >> that would be an amazing case of mistaken identity if it does happen to be a valentine's day surprise gone wrong. have you heard anything from

pistorius' camp yet? >> no, nothing yet. the management hasn't been able to comment. we do know that police are giving a press conference right now in south africa. we might get more information in the next few minutes. >> all right. let us know, duncan, if you hear anything. we appreciate it. president obama will be in georgia this morning to highlight an education initiative rolled out tuesday in his state of the union address. the president will visit an early childhood learning center as part of the push to offer better opportunity to kids from lower income families. in north carolina yesterday, he repeated his call for cooperation in washington. and put the focus on another item from the second term wish list, raising the minimum wage. >> our job as americans is to restore that basic bargain that says if you work hard, if you're willing to meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead. >> i believe we reward effort and determination with wages that allow working families to

raise their kids and get ahead. and if you work full time, you shouldn't be in poverty. i'm doing what i can just to administrative action but i need congress to help. i need congress to do their part. i need congress to do their part. i need congress to take up these initiatives because we've come too far. we've worked too hard to turn back now. the minimum wage would go up to $9 an hour. john boehner says that may end up hurting the nation's economic recovery. >> listen, i've been dealing with a minimum wage issue for the last 28 years that i've been in leoffice. and when you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? you get less of it. and at a time when the american people are still asking the question where are the jobs, why

would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people? >> the president's push for new gun legislation is also running the opposition from some republicans. senator lindsey gram of south carolina is accusing the president of cheerleading for new restrictions while overlook something big gaps in the way current laws are enforced. >> democratic colleagues want to expand the background check law to make us all feel that we're safer. my retoric to my democratic friends is that you can't really feel safe by expanding a broken law. we talk a lot about new laws. we talk about the emotional aspects of gun violence. we don't seem to be doing very much in the real world to make it -- to deter people. >> senator graham also spoke out against expanding background checks suggesting it would lead to a gun register, he is pushing his own legislation to keep

people with mental illness from getting a weapon. there is still a ways to go for chuck hagel before the senate has its say. republicans are refusing to allow a vote to confirm the former colleague to run the pentagon. it's the first ever filibuster against someone nominated for defense secretary. but hagel's opponents say they're not filibustering. they're simply demanding a 60-vote threshold to end the debate. thanks for clearing it up. a vote is scheduled for friday when they try to get the votes necessary to move the process forward. john mccain backed away from the pledge not to filibuster hagel's nod. he says he is waiting to see if the obama administration responds to calls to offer up more details about the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. leon panetta minced few words but what is most likely the last press briefing on the job. with the threat of a march 1st sequester looming, he lashed out

at congress. he thinks they could be crippling with price cuts. >> oftentimes i feel luke i don't have a full partnership with my former colleagues on the hill in trying to do what's right for this country. we need to find solutions. we can't just sit here and. [ beep ] we can't just sit here and complain. we can't just sit here and blame others. we can't just sit here and point fen finger at each other. we have to solve problems that we're facing. this country is facing real threats in the world. we can't do this alone. we've got to do this with a full partnership of the congress in both houses of the congress. >> that's the way to go out with a beep on your last press conference. republican members of congress from paul ryan to roy blunt predicted the sequester will not ab voided. now an update on that crippled cruise ship whose return home has been anything but triumphant.

a power failure left it stranded. next came a food shortage. hundreds of nonfunctioning toilets. five days later, the nightmare is almost over. janet shandly reports. >> reporter: these are the passengers who have been toughing it out on the crippled trium triumph, living four days without power, working toilets or enough food. the photos were taken from another carnival vessel as it delivered supplies. a third tug was summoned to help tug triumph into mobile. >> your heart sinks. your stomach knots up. you just want to keel over in a fetal position and go why? why now? you know? but you get stronger. >> reporter: carnival apologized to customers and canceled 12 more triumph cruises. docked now until at least mid april. little consolation for this woman whose mother is onboard. >> i mean it's awful. we just want our mom home. we want to make sure she's safe. >> reporter: they have lost contact with family in the last day or so as cell phones have

died. carnival says it's made arrangements to get passengers home as soon as possible. 1500 hotel rooms booked in new orleans and mobile for thursday night. and 20 charter flights head to houston on friday. >> every decision we've made since sunday morning is to ensure the safety of our guests and to get them home as quickly as possible. >> reporter: this man drove from texas to meet his fiancee who has been anything but comfortable. >> if they give you a number to call, when you call the number, the information they give you makes you think everything is okay. but then when you hear from someone on the ship, you know, you realize what kind of situation that they're in. >> reporter: the final hours of a vacation nightmare as triumph limps home. >> so what are the passengers getting for their trouble? so far we're hearing a full refund and a whopping $500 in cash. good luck with that. a deal has been reached to create the worlg's biggest airline. american airlines parent company and us airways have both

approved a deal for the two companies to merge. an official announcement is expected hours from now. let's take an early look at the markets with jeff cutmore. for a flyer, this leaves four major air carriers in charge of 87% of the flights in the u.s. will that lead to ticket increases? >> well, that's what the consumer travel groups think. already they're starting to flex muscles on this story. they think inevitably it means passenger costs are going to rise here. so you've got that noise happening in the background as these two businesses come together and as you say, we're pending that announcement. it will be a giant company. 900 aircraft, 3,000 flights, 100,000 employees. it will push them to the top of the league in terms of volume of flights travelled. and clearly not everybody is happy about this. but it will lead to some much needed consolidation in this

sector. the markets, i think, will be quite happy to see these two businesses come together. there is still approval hoops they have to jump through. i think everybody knows where this one is going. they've been in talks since august. and quite appropriate they make it valentine's day to actually put ink on the paper. so that's that story. let's just remind you markets are a little higher in the european session here. back to you. >> so, geoff, with the merger, we have american airlines and us airwa airways, are they going to come up with a new name or just going with one of them? >> yeah, that's a tricky one, isn't it? i think that answer is on the postcard here. but you figure they got to have u.s. or american in there somewhere because it seems to me that is key branding. if you're a home airline, you want to just remind your traveling public that that's the home advantage, right? >> yeah. i'm guessing us airways is probably gone, too. all right, geoff. have a great day there in london. let us know why you're

awake, shoot us an e-mail or tweet me. we'll read the best responses later in the show. still ahead on "way too early," one of the biggest rivalries in college basketball, duke and unc face off in a big upset in the big east. that's next in sports. will farrell also throws his support behind a candidate for mayor of los angeles who happens to be his life long friend. we'll show you the unique political endorsement, of course. and we'll get a check on your valentine's day forecast when "way too early" comes right back. [ male announcer ] why is kellogg's crunchy nut so delicious?

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welcome back on this thursday, valentine's day. maybe you were expecting snow in philadelphia to new york city. i know higher elevations got it. it was too warm and moved through too quickly. it's all gone. whatever the roads are doing now, they're much improved. so we'll be happy that this storm underachieved. we have other areas of travel concerns very minor. we head through areas of wisconsin. they had a little snow around green bay. chicago, maybe rain showers for your morning commute. that's about it. up into minnesota and wisconsin and northern portions of the plains, a little clipper low will go through with snow showers. i think the worst weather in the country today will be south florida of all places. we're getting heavy rain down there from west palm beach to ft. myers and miami. already numerous rain showers in the area. again, that's it. pretty quiet day. we're still watching that cold blast for the weekend on the east coast. still an ocean storm not affecting the eastern seaboard. that's great. it will get colder but it's not

brutal. 28 there in boston. enjoy this on the eastern seaboard. the warmest days we're going to see for a while. now to college basketball's biggest rivalry, we head to tobacco road, north carolina at duke. things got ugly before the game started. this is the duke mascot's head impaled on a stake outside the unc bookstore. the head was returned before the tip. to the highlights. second half, unc up five. baseline, nice pretty little reverse. tar heels were primed for the upset. duke rallies. seth curry, the three. the blue devils take their first lead of the game. just over five minutes to go. don't leave him. you got to cover him. he's the best shooter. curry again with the three. he puts this one away. duke wins 73-68. after the game, coach k goes into crowd control mode. he tells the duke students you don't rush the court. this is duke. this is unc.

let's have some class. and now to the best rivalry in the big east has had to offer for one last time. uconn taking on acc bound number six ranked syracuse. pick it up in the second half. omar calhoun goes up for the alley-oop. four point lead. the husky fans couldn't be happier. syracuse down by two. a nice move in the lane. turn around jumper. game tied at 42. then it gets broken open by uconn. a loose ball. coast to coast for the breakaway dunk. he is listed at 6 foot. uconn wins the last ever big east meeting with syracuse. 66-58. to college hoops injury now that will likely further the debate on the nba's one and done rule. kentucky freshman noel is done for the year after tearing his acl. the injury will cost him millions of dollars. before the nba raised their minimum age from 18 to 19, he o would have been a lock to jump

straight to the league for a straight nba pick. now his future is in question. he was projected to be a top three pick. last year the top three pick ended up with $8.3 million. he won't recover from this for six to eight months. now the question is does he return to kentucky or does he still go into the draft and the team takes a risk on him? regardless, he's going to lose millions. finally, spring training is getting into full swing. when the yankees hold the first full squad workout on monday, a-rod won't be with the team. joe girardi told reporters yesterday that a-rod will rehab from hip surgery in new york. instead with the yankees in tampa bay. girardi had no timetable for an a-rod might emerge. they have not ininstructed him to stay away. he was kconnected with a scanda this morning. girardi says the team will wait for major league baseball to do their thing. at the top of the hour on "morning joe," chuck hagel's nomination as defense leader is

held up in a vote. we look at what the standoff in washington means for our troops on the battlefield. and when we come back, we'll huddle around a water cooler where a toddler is caught stealing sprinkles from the kitchen and then lying about it to his mom. that's next when "way too early" comes right back. ♪ [ engine turns over ] [ male announcer ] we created the luxury crossover and kept turning the page, writing the next chapter for the rx and lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection. pull out the paper and what? another article that says investors could lose tens of thousands of dollars in hidden fees on their 401(k)s?! seriously? seriously. you don't believe it? search it. "401(k) hidden fees." then go to e-trade and roll over your old 401(k)s to a new e-trade retirement account. we have every type of retirement account. none of them charge annual fees and all of them offer low cost investments. why? because we're not your typical wall street firm

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president obama hit the road yesterday just hours from laying out his state the union address. fewer people have tuned in. if you want to sound smart, tell your friends that 33.5 million people watched this year's state of the union address, that's 4.5 million less than last year's mark. this continues a downward trend in state of the union viewership for the president. in 2011, the state of the union had 43 million viewers. enough with the real news. we bring in the man that interviewed kate upton. that is your intro for life, buddy. >> i appreciate it, bill. happy valentine's day, my friend. >> i got you a little chocolate after the show. >> listen, i love any valentine's day gift i can get. will farrell is always surprising us with his off the beat side projects. yesterday the comedian showed up in a campaign ad. he wants los angeles councilman eric garshetti to be the next mayor. check out the personal

endorsement. good for years it was known if you messed with eric or e squared as we called him, then you messed with farrell or sweet buns as i called myself. eric was always the idea guy. when i joined the air fost to fly c-1 cargo planes, it was eric who said, why are you doing that? you're afraid of planes and you're 38 years old. good advice. and when eric was about to throw away a silly little song he wrote on a lark. i said, wait, there is something there. that song was later recorded by olivia newton john. let's get physical. the greatest song ever made. eric has always been there for me. and now it's time to let eric garcetti be there for los angeles. >> this is so random but it's funny. >> i want to hang out with e squared and sweet buns. >> wait a second, he pushes a little too far in the video. let's continue to watch here for a second. >> i can't speak for what eric will do as a mayor sh but i can promise you this. if you vote for him, there will

be free waffles every tuesday morning for the whole city of los angeles! huh? oh, okay. okay, apparently there's no way that can happen. >> where does he get the orange track suits? i mean come on? you have seen this video? >> this is the first for me. >> this 2-year-old named john who can't keep his fingers out of the sprinkles jar, he is caught red-handed as he attempts to lie to his mom. >> what are you eating? >> nothing. >> you didn't eat anything? >> yeah. >> john, look at mommy. >> anything. >> are you telling me the truth? you didn't have any snaps? >> nope. >> john? can you explain to me why the sprinkles are empty? did you eat those sprinkles? >> no. i did not. >> john? you have sprinkles on your face.

>> i don't know. i did not eat sprinkles. >> deny, deny. deny. >> he did the wipe away. >> the video got so many hits online that ellen degeneres invited john and his mom on the show. there he comes clean and has a moment of sprinkle glory. take a look. >> do you admit now that you ate the sprifrpg snlz. >> yeah. >> oh, yeah. yeah. obviously. i had sprinkles on my face. come on over here. i have a gift for you, john. >> okay. >> okay, come on. >> look at all these sprinkles. >> oh, my gosh! you want any sprinkles? >> yeah! >> okay. there you go. >> oh, pi god. oh, my gosh! >> you're taking him home tonight, right? >> look at that.

>> i love the rainbow sprinkles. >> he just didn't care. he was reaching his hand in there. i got my own little valentines. i love sprinkles. >> a little sprinkles on top. >> you know they call it jimmies? i never understood that. >> i've done it again. i've eaten and now i got to talk. ode the trials and tribulations for flying commercial. kim kardashian and kanye west called up a flight tuesday at jfk here in new york. officials had to intervene and privately screen the couple after they were running late to bypass the long security line. turns out the star struck airline employee took the rapper and pregnant kim through a back entrance violating security proet kolz. i can't really blame them for this. if you get through the security line, you get past it, you do what you do. yeah. >> she's pregnant. >> but, of course, "the new york post" ready to put this on the front cover. >> bums rush. >> bums rush. any valentine's day plans? >> going to surprise the wife. she may be watching. >> any gifts?

>> heading to the store right after the show. still ahead on "way too early," why are you awake? your love struck tweets and texts are next. "morning joe" is moments away. [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. yeah. then how'd i get this...

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